Ava, The King's Pet
HP: 8930
Skills: Paw Swipe*, Lunging Bite*, Lunging Claw*, Icicles, Explosion, Ice Pillars
Souls: 78000


Difficulty: 4/5

Deaths: 10+



The final post about "Dark Souls 2" and we'll be covering the final set of bosses from the DLC. Out of the 3 DLCs, the Ivory King DLC is probably my favorite one in terms of map design, NOT INCLUDING the Frigid Outskirts. The kingdom of Eleum Loyce is simply so beautiful and enchanting, it even has such an interesting architecture, there's no way not to lose yourself in its beauty. However, the bosses in this DLC are pretty tough, so take note. As with the Iron King DLC, the first boss in this 3rd DLC is pretty freaking tough....Meet the invisible ice tiger, Ava.



That's one dead dude.

The first time you fight Ava, he's probably going to be invisible and he's probably going to massively whoop your ass. You can only properly see the kitty cat after subduing the blizzard in the shrine later into the area. Ava is a BIG kitty, and that pretty much means he packs a massive punch. He's intimidating, and he's incredibly powerful, he probably took me more than 10 tries on my first play through against him with my mage character. Unless you're completely stacked up, prepare for a tough one.


Paw Swipe* - A homing melee attack that tracks you as Ava spins his entire body while swinging his paw. The damage is massive and the range is deceptively far for a melee attack, so take note.

Lunging Bite* - He charges from afar and lunges in on you with an unblockable bite attack. Once he grabs you he does insane damage.


Lunging Claw* - He charges from afar and lunges in on you with a claw swipe. Like the regular Paw Swipe this one hurts and homes quite a fair bit.


Icicles - He roars and spawns a bunch of icicles which home in on you from afar with some slight tracking properties. Simply sprint towards him on either his left or right from a distance to completely derail the icicles.


Explosion - After doing nothing for awhile, Ava lets out an explosion like a fart, doing AOE damage. Simply move away once you see his model go stagnant.

Ice Pillars - He roars and summons some ice pillars around him that appear in random areas. Can be easily avoided by simply moving away, the pillars take some time to form.


He might seem like he has a lot of attacks, but honestly, you only need to worry about his melee attacks. Ava's magic attacks and projectiles can be easily dealt with after some getting used to, and they don't do nearly as much damage as his melee strikes. Ava is huge, so he is easy to see coming, but his attacks have some delay, so it'll take some time to get used to the proper timing to dodge them. His general attack pattern mostly involves going in on you for a few melee attacks, before backing off far away to launch Icicles at you, then he proceeds to try to melee you again. It's an easy pattern to learn, but once he nabs you, you're probably screwed, since he does a ton of damage.


To start off his pattern he usually goes with the standard Paw Swipe, before backing off for Icicles. Run up to him while he channels and misses Icicles to get a few free hits in. If he's far away he'll try for a Lunging Bite or Lunging Claw attack, the former of which is a more dangerous attack, but both are equally scary. The dude does have long recovery times, so you can use that opportunity to get a few good hits him. Again, the timing to dodge his attacks is crucial, and a single screw-up will probably cost you the match, seeing as he does a butt load of damage.




F**king cat mate.


That isn't all he has up close however. There are times where Ava will stand still and roar when you're close to him. This isn't him using Icicles again, and is probably one of his other 2 magic spells that he likes to use up close. One is Explosion, the other is Ice Pillars. Explosion can catch you off guard at the start, but its honestly easy to see coming after awhile. Ice Pillars is a bit tricky, but its so RNG based that there are times that none of the pillars will hit you at all, even if you go completely ham on attacking Ava. Either way, the safe option is to back off when he starts to channel anything at all.


Ava is quite bulky, but after multiple punishes, he goes down like a champ. That's not the last you'll see of the damn tiger, but for now, you get 78000 souls for beating him. Beating him grants you passage to proceed deeper in, where you unlock more areas in Frozen Eleum Loyce.



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Burnt Ivory King
HP: 8040
Skills: Leaping Slash, Sword Combo*, Impale*, Ice Pillars, Sword Buff*
Souls: 92000


Difficulty: 4/5

Deaths: 10+



It is highly recommended that you gain alliance of all of the knights before you attempt this battle. The Old Chaos packs a LOT of charred Loyce Knights that are incredibly powerful on their own, NOT COUNTING THE BOSS. I can't count the amount of times I died BEFORE even getting to see the boss, even with ALL of the allied knights unlocked from their slumber. It's a battle of attrition more than anything, and I can easily say that you're going to be in for a loooooong fight here.



Scary looking mother f**ker.


75% of the actual battle is actually just you against the charred Loyce Knights. There are 3 portals that constantly spawn these knights and they will very easily overwhelm you after awhile. The knights are strong individually, they either pack a shield and one handed weapon, a two handed axe, or wield pyromancy. Of the 3 variations, the pyromancy ones are the most annoying, and these niggas spew out of the portals so quickly that its so f**king irritating. Your very own knights will sacrifice themselves to seal off a portal after awhile, so with 4 knights, you'll get one remaining knight to fight alongside you when the big daddy shows up. Honestly though, the knights aren't that much use, since the charred Loyce knights always go after you instead of them, and since they hurt, you'll die unless you run around like a headless chicken as your knights seal off portals. Also, if the big daddy shows up and there are still charred Loyce Knights around, consider the battle lost, you can't take them together.


Leaping Slash - The King comes in on you Gwyn style, slashing a huge area in front of him as he leaps in. Easily dodged or blocked.

Sword Combo* - The only thing that should kill you. A combination of slashes and stabs that usually go to 3-4 hits. Just back the f**k away as he doesn't move much while swinging. Combined with the buff this is quite deadly, so take note.


Impale* - He charges for a short while before stabbing his sword forward for an unblockable grab styled attack. Does tons of damage, like most grab moves.


Ice Pillars - Similar to Ava's attack with the same name. Just move around frantically to dodge.


Sword Buff* - He coats his sword with a white aura and increases his damage drastically. Lasts for a few seconds at best.



When the charred Loyce Knight portals are completely sealed off, the Burnt Ivory King makes his entrance. It helps drastically to have a Knight with you, as you would have exhausted a good deal of your Estus supply dealing with Charred Loyce Knights. While your ally knight does little damage, he can take aggro from the King and let you get some free hits in. Because of the nature of this battle, the King himself isn't that durable, so you can take him down quickly with a powerful weapon. Note that once your buddy goes down, it'll much much tougher one on one.


Because of how relentless the King is, there is actually not much of an opportunity to heal here. Once he goes in on you he rarely gets out. You can only heal if he's in a middle of a combo and you somehow manage to get out while he's still swinging, even then, he closes the gap quickly. Another safe opportunity would be when he's buffing his sword, but you'd want to use that time to actually deal damage to him. He is mostly a closed ranged fighter with a slightly longer reach than usual because of his long sword. He uses his Leaping Slash to get in from afar, and up close he usually relies on his combo and Impale, both of which are his best moves.



Let's get him together buddy!

He has slight delay between attacks, meaning you can punish him now and then, though his damage is ridiculously high like all DLC bosses, so take extreme care about not getting hit. He can use Ice Pillars, similarly to Ava, but again, moving around will get you out of it easily. He doesn't have a massive health pool, so rushing him can take him down quick. Honestly, the hardest part of this fight is just the charred knights before him, so there's that. He grants a massive 92000 souls reward.



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Lud, The King's Pet
HP: 5070
Skills: Paw Swipe*, Lunging Bite*, Lunging Claw*, Icicles, Explosion, Ice Pillars
Souls: 56000

Zallen, The King's Pet
HP: 5070
Skills: Paw Swipe*, Lunging Bite*, Lunging Claw*, Icicles, Explosion, Ice Pillars

Souls: 56000


Difficulty: F*ck You/5
Deaths: Over 9000



Behold, the worst thing of the entire "Souls" franchise. Not only is the Frigid Outskirts the worst designed map in the ENTIRE "Souls" franchise, this boss just infuriates the living shit out of me for its very existence. After braving through possibly the most brutal, boring and uninspired map, EVER, your reward is facing a palate swap boss from the very same DLC. Holy. Shit. Talk about lazy. At least the Blue Smelter Demon was a swap of a boss from the main game, these guys have the audacity to palate swap RIGHT from the very DLC that they was from. Ugh. 



F**king tigers.

Alright, so instead of one Ava, its 2 Avas now, whoop de f**king doo. Adding an additional kitty cat into the mix doesn't make it a tougher, better boss, its just lazy and ridiculous. If you managed to triumph Ava completely, then good for you, this battle is more or less the same, just that you can't make as many mistakes as before. If you thought Ava was hard like I did, this battle is a freaking nightmare. The worst thing about it is the fact that you need to run across the entire shitty wasteland of the Frigid Outskirts to even GET here....Why they didn't add any bonfires to that area is BEYOND me.


So these dick bags have the exact same moves as Ava, so there's really no need to go through them again. 2 BIG, deciding factors to this fight. There are 2 tigers, and instead of a gigantic, linear arena, we have a smaller, enclosed space. Both are bad news, if both tigers join in on the fight to gang bang your ass, you stand no chance, literally. The best strategy to this battle, and the ONLY strategy for me to actually win, is to BURST down Lud before Zallen can even hit you. If you're solo, Zallen only comes in after you've all but nearly taken down Lud, so f**king light your weapon on fire and go ballistic ape shit on Lud to kill him.


If Zallen is all that's left, then congratulations, it's just you fighting Ava again one on one in a smaller arena. If Lud is still alive when Zallen arrives, then you're practically f**ked, one swipe from each tiger almost always ends in your demise. And once you die, you need to cross that shitty Frigid Outskirts again, I cannot stress that enough. That alone makes this fight so unbearably disgusting. 




Oh god I hate this so much.


One more thing to take note is that the final remaining tiger will go into a berserk to increase its damage and health regeneration in exchange for defense...only when he's near death. At this point, he's very easy to take down, but his damage is significantly higher. Fortunately I only had to see this once, because when I got to this point, I had already died so many times to the point of me being insanely good at fighting these guys, so one of them going berserk almost meant nothing to me. Just take him down and put the tiger out of his misery.


As a last note, taking two of these guys down only gives you 56000 souls, when the original Ava gave you 78000. F**k this shit, what a sour way to end this series. 



If you've stuck with me all this way, then you have my thanks. With this out of the way, I'll either move to the "Bloodborne" or "Dark Souls 3" bosses....


Or both, who knows. Peace.




Opening Songs
OP 1 - Hey Kids!! (THE ORAL CIGARETTES)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Nirvana (Tia)

Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama, Supernatural

Episodes: 12



A second season to a show that I never REALLY asked for. The first ""Noragami" was good but also kind of generic. Yato's relationship to Yukine and Hiori were nice but I kind of felt that the show didn't really have much to offer that other shows did better. So here we are with a second season that honestly threw me off guard. It was more action packed, it was a lot more intense, and more than ever, the character building also surpassed that of whatever happened in season 1. It was a great follow up to the original and I felt that it EASILY surpassed the original as well. If you did manage to finish the first season, then season 2 has quite a lot to offer that I really enjoyed. When things start to heat up, "Noragami" puts up an intense showing, and "Noragami Aragato" is for the most part, always on full throttle. 



Gods are getting rather fashionable these days.


The opening theme to "Noragami Aragato" is most probably the one of the best things I've heard in 2015 if not for "Raise Your Flag". "Hey Kids!!" by THE ORAL CIGARETTES is heavy, its fast, and it gets the blood pumping real good. Its the kind of opening theme that gets you hyped up every time it plays, and its super hard to try and skip it, because every part of the song is just good. Definitely a lot better than season 1's opening. The ending theme is "Nirvana" by Tia, its another slow paced ending theme sang with a cute voice. It's a complete opposite of the opening theme, but considering its by Ryo from Supercell, I guess there'll be those who'll like it.



Rating: 8.0/10



In terms of story, feels, action and almost everything else, I'd say "Noragami Aragato" triumphs the original. There are just so many memorable moments, and there really aren't any episodes wasted on the main trio doing nothing this time. While its nice to see the main characters laze around in "everyday life" episodes, the show is at its best when there are things at stake, and that there are lots of fights going on. "Noragami"'s animation is superb, and it continues to show here in the sequel. The 2 story arcs presented are great (though Bishamon's arc is better), and rather than just the main 3 characters, a lot more characters are brought into the mix with PROPER screen time. There are plenty of other nice moments in here and it's incredibly intense during its climax moments. It even gives us another semi-cliffhanger ending during the last episode to sort of tease us with the shit that's about to come in the future if they decide to do season 3, and that gave me goosebumps.



Its never complete without sword fights.


Following the ending of the first season, Rabo has been destroyed and now Yato, Yukine and Hiori are all the more closer with one another. Now comes the issue with Bishamon, the ruthless god of war who is hell bent on destroying Yato because he destroyed her clan of familiars all those years ago. Now that she's become a full fledged god with an endless army of familiars that live under her rule, she's pretty much got nothing to fear. However, as a god, having familiars come with circumstances. Yato already has trouble handling Yukine alone, imagine for Bishamon, who has a castle full of familiars to attend to. If even one familiar is blighted, she is screwed, what about a ton of them being corrupted? This all starts to go to hell when one of Bishamon's familiars run into Yukine and starts to get along with him. One fatal mistake is all that is needed to spark a war between Yato and Bishamon...


"Noragami Aragato" ends on a conclusive note with a cliffhanger ending that leaves us wondering what's next to come. Now that Yato is more resolved than ever and that he has even more allies willing to back him up, the next threat better be something catastrophically amazing. However, if the plot to follow is as exciting as what's here, then we have nothing to worry about.



Monday 12 September 2016

Dark Souls 3

Gamespot Score: 8.0 (Great)

My Score: 9.0



(+) Pros: - Brilliant lore coupled with an expansive world, - Lots of nostalgia and tidbits from previous 2 games, - Improved gameplay that's probably the best of the franchise thus far, - Great focus on both PVE and PVP at the same time, - Great boss battles, - Multiple endings, much more than previous games, - High replay value.

(-) Cons: - Considerably less challenging than previous games outside of 1 boss (new game + also offer less challenge than in previous games).


Game Play Time: 100 hours+






And here we are with the final installment of the "Dark Souls" franchise. It's a pity really, but I'm actually kind of glad that "From Soft" decided to end the franchise here before it got too stale...with them releasing a new game once every couple of years, that wouldn't be too good (as it is now, its starting to become "From Soft"'s COD or Assassin's Creed). For all of your thirsting for more, there's still 2 DLCs on the way, and while the "Dark Souls" franchise is ending, it may actually spell hope for a sequel or "Demon's Souls" or "Bloodborne"...but I actually want Miyazaki to take on a new IP. Anyway, being the final game in the franchise, its pretty obvious that "Dark Souls 3" is pretty amazing. It is most definitely a worthwhile sequel to previous games and a wonderful closure to a series that's honestly starting to run out of ideas. So for the last time, it's time to plunge into a world of death and despair.


"Dark Souls 3" is the direct sequel to the original 2 games, featuring many lore bits and even characters from previous games. It stars you, not as a chosen undead this time, but as an unkindled one, a manifestation of ash from past fallen heroes...or in some cases, just a puny warrior on the side of the road. Anyway, you have the right to link the flame, but as an unkindled, nobody expects jack shit from you, especially when there are lords of cinder out there with plenty of power to link to flame if they tried. Unfortunately, they have abandoned their duty, and the firekeeper of firelink shrine has chose you as the next monarch to link the fire. Your duty? To slay the current lord of cinders, pillage their souls and ultimately go to link the fire yourself. Because f**k those guys.




When you march into a dance party uninvited. 


Well, there's quite a lot to talk about "Dark Souls 3", but its more or less the same game as before with improvements. With a brand new game comes a brand new world, and "Dark Souls 3" plunges you into the kingdom of Lothric, a new land built upon old kingdoms. With that taken into to mind, there WILL be plenty of winks towards the older games. However, even when taking into consideration the new locales alone, Lothric's world is amazing in both lore and just plain visual spectacle. From the towering castle, the tattered streets along the high walls to the lower wall slum areas and mighty cathedrals, there's A LOT to look at and get lost in.


In terms of lore though, its certainly leaps better than Drangleic in "Dark Souls 2" ever was. Item descriptions actually make sense to corresponding areas this time, and its much easier to link bits and pieces of the lore together. Hell, this time even if you don't look at item descriptions to squeeze out bits and pieces of the lore, you can pretty much tell what's going on. Not only that, you will very easily drown in nostalgia as there are plenty of throwbacks to the first 2 games. I won't spoil it here, but there area areas and NPCs from the previous 2 games, you will squeal like a fanboy if you're hardcore into the first 2 games like I am. 



Oh my f**k, what the hell is that?!

Now then, on to the game play. For the most part, its as you remember when it comes to the control. Since this is not "Bloodborne", there's no longer a dedicated healing button to inject blood vials, its back to the original item switching and manual downing of Estus flasks. Either way, managing your items during battle is slightly easier this time round, as you can instantly switch back to your estus flasks from other items by holding "down" on the D-Pad, rather than frantically switching during a fight. You can change weapons and spells as usual, like in "Dark Souls", you can equip up to 3 weapons/shields in either hand. Hitting X rolls, Triangle will let you hold your weapon with 2 hands, and circle simply lets you examine stuff. The trigger buttons are back to being used as attack buttons.


While dual wielding has been removed from "Dark Souls 2" (which is a damn shame), weapon arts have been added into the game. Instead of your regular health and stamina bar, "Dark Souls 3" returns to the root of "Demons' Souls", by adding a 3rd resource bar known as "Focus". Just like mana, you require FP to use weapon arts and magic, however, unlike "Demons' Souls" where you can just hoard a bunch of spices and never run dry, you'll require estus flasks to heal FP as well. You'll need to choose to distribute your flasks into regular health restoring estus flasks, or ashen estus flasks which heal FP. It's a tough choice, and it slightly punishes casters this time around, as they felt far too safe and had too much of a power spike previously, they'll need to choose between survivability instead of over-relying on magic. 



Ladies and gentleman, everyone's favorite ass in the franchise.


Speaking of that, the ashen estus flasks also apply to those who rely too much on weapon arts. These are skills that are attached to each weapon in game. While there are a small minority of weapons which lack weapon arts at all, most of them do, and they give you a slightly new approach to battle. For example, the Greatsword weapon art gives you a massive temporary boost in poise for a powerful strike, the dagger weapon art gives you a swift dash, some bows let you fire rapidly...so on and so forth. The better the weapon, the more effective the weapon art, and boss weapons usually give you sick attacks. However, its sometimes better to not rely too much on as a melee fighter, since duking it out with bosses in close range is still the most effective way of getting things done.


With the new game comes new ways to improve the gaming experience. PVE, while still the main focus of the game, is still a blast. As usual, the game mixes in some brilliant enemy placements, while things can get incredibly ridiculous at times, it never feels unfair or cheap. There are ways to deal with all types of enemies, and while some might seem overbearing at first, always take note that there are ways to deal with them (except for the triple golden fat angel knights towards the end game, those guys are BS if you take them all at once). As for PVP, covenants make a triumph return to the game, and as you'd expect, a lot of these babies focus solely on fighting other players.




"Disney World!" - Videogamedunkey.


There are covenants dedicated to summoning you into other players' worlds just to kill them for trespassing on a certain in-game area. There are covenants that get you automatically summoned into a world if someone is invaded (as you guessed, its the blue dudes again). As long as you actively play into the covenant, there will be tons of battles, ESPECIALLY if you joined the accursed "Aldrich Faithful". If your SL isn't that high, prepare to be plunged into battle every 5 minutes. There will always be PVP weapon tiers and the like, but the game is fun enough for you to be able to win with every possible weapon....if you're good at the game, of course. Obviously, insane boss battles make a return as well. While most of the bosses should not phase veteran players to the franchise at this point, they are still incredibly fun and some even make use of unique mechanics to spice up the fight (like Yhorm and Abyss Watchers).


I won't spoil these bosses to avoid spoilers, but I'll just say that they are a massive improvement over "Dark Souls 2" bosses. What else does this game have over the rest? Endings, multiple endings. While past games have 2 endings at best, "Dark Souls 3" has 4, and out of those 4, one of them is incredibly hard to get. Not surprisingly, that is the most satisfying ending of them all. Just on the endings alone, the game has a high amount of replay value if you intend to get all of them, but of course, that's not all there is to the game. As usual, there are a multitude of builds and character possibilities that can keep you glued to the land of Lothric for a long, LONG time. Oh yeah, fashion souls too, its always fun to play a new game just to make a brand new character cosplay.



Yeah...that IS a gigantic alligator dog.


As for flaws, I can only think of 2 things. The major thing is that the game isn't nearly as tough as previous offerings. While there are some annoying areas, outside of 1 boss, there isn't one part of the game that really causes me to die multiple times in a row. Maybe its just me hardening up to the "Souls" games already, but there really isn't a MASSIVE difficulty spike in the game. Other than that though, its basically just New Game + and beyond, there didn't seem to be too much of a boost in the enemy numbers, so the game is basically easier beyond that.



"Dark Souls 3" is a nice way to conclude an amazing franchise. I don't think that the franchise is dead for sure, I think Miyazaki is going to re-use the engine to make a better IP like "Bloodborne". This may be the last of Gwyn's arc, but I think there will be more to come. For now, let's just wait on the DLC, its going to be good for sure. If there's anything about the "Souls" DLC, they are always tougher than the main game, so let's hope its the "oompf" that "Dark Souls 3" needs.






Happy gaming!



Opening Songs
OP 1 - Wonder Stella (Fhana)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Happening Diary (Yumeha Koda)

Genre: Action, Comedy, Fantasy

Episodes: 10



If it ain't broken, don't fix it. By now I think the "Magical Girl Illya" spin off franchise might have more episodes than the original "Fate" series itself. This incredibly fun and nonsensical spin off might just be popular enough to overtake the main series, seeing as it has now spawned a total of 4 seasons, which is mind blowing, to say the least. This is the 3rd season, despite the title being incredibly misleading, newcomers would think that it's actually season 2. Anyway, the 3rd season basically recycles the formula of those before it, using the main central cast of loli girls to shower the viewers with fan service, "character building" episodes before unloading the fights scenes unto us. There's really not much to say here, if you liked the previous offerings, this one will get you just as good, otherwise, then there's nothing really incredible here that can convince you into starting on the franchise.


Loli it to the end!

As in previous seasons, the opening and ending themes take the same tone. We have "Wonder Stella" by Fhana for the opening theme and "Happening Diary" by Yumeha Koda for the ending theme. Not much to say here, except that "Wonder Stella" does feel slightly weaker than previous opening songs in of the anime, and that "Happening Diary" is....yet another slow paced song. Next.



Rating: 7.0/10



While it kind of worked in season 2 for quite a bit since they had to spend some time building Kuroh, a lot of season 3 is actually spent doing a whole lot of nothing. While I do enjoy the typical tropes of school girls running around doing ridiculous things, I pretty much liked it better if the girls did some fighting, because that's what I was here more. More so than ever, season 3's filler blab episodes are a little bit too long and excessive, doing nothing but making me ask one very simple question "when do we get to see some fights?". Thankfully, the action does come in the final 30% of the show or so, and its probably some of the best damn fighting I've seen in the 3 seasons as a whole...but for this season, the action to nonsense ratio tilts too much into the nonsense side. Too much episodes wasted on pointless endeavors, I felt like they only needed the beach arc in terms of nonsensical filler episodes, the others felt...idiotic. 



Eh....I'm not too sure about elementary school
girls being worried about...boob sizes.

After the events of the second season, Kuroh has now successfully blended into Illya's life a full 100%. She now lives in Illya's home and fits right well into school as Illya's awfully similar looking cousin. In trade for living a normal life, she now just needs to suck some of Illya's mana by having lesbian kiss sessions. Anyway with Illya, Miyu and Kuroh now an unstoppable team, and with the cliffhanger of season 2 about the 8th possible class card, Rin, Luvia and Bazett start conducting investigations about it. The card itself is currently hidden very deep into the earth and is very hard to excess, so they've got some digging to do. In the meantime, everyone screws around while waiting for construction work to be done so that they can actually do something about the 8th class card.



Season 3 of "Magical Illya" just simply ends up being more of the same, though there are significantly more filler episodes here, which people may or may not take to. Personally, the action sequences in Illya are quite thrilling and are on par with those of the original "Fate" franchise, and its one of the main focal points of the show. As long as they stick to that, I'll feel a lot better about recommending it.